Marrakech Broke My Brain (In the Best Way)

I had two days in Marrakech before a connecting flight. I booked a cheap riad, figured I’d see the square and the souks and that’d be that. I nearly missed my flight home because I couldn’t make myself leave.

The medina doesn’t make sense and that’s the point

You will get lost. Your phone’s GPS will confidently point you into dead ends. Stop trying to navigate efficiently and just walk. The good stuff — the tanneries, the hidden cafes, the woodworking quarter where the smell of cedar hits you like a wall — none of it is on the main drag.

Eat at Djemaa el-Fna at night

The square during the day is mostly aggressive orange juice sellers. Fine, whatever. But at sunset it completely transforms — food stalls, smoke, musicians, storytellers working crowds who are actually listening. I ate lamb merguez at a counter stool and watched the whole thing like it was theatre. Because it is.

One thing I wish I’d done differently

Stayed longer in the Jardin Majorelle. The cobalt blue buildings, the cacti, the strange silence in the middle of everything — it deserved a whole morning. I gave it forty minutes. Next time that’s the first thing I’m doing.